Everything Gone in an Instant
by CommanderAuri
Summary: This was just a short story for my elemental Mass Effect OC and what had happened when the Reapers invaded the galaxy when the Protheans were still around.


A loud booming metallic noise echoes across the burning landscape overhead. A cacophony of screams fill the air as figures ran this way and that, sometimes pursued by beings contorted into disproportionate shapes and sizes. They leap up and onto the backs of their prey that puts up a fight before the struggle ends violently. Crowds of people flee from buildings in a collapsing city as red hot beams of light rip through them, burning deep scars into the sandy ground. The stars above are covered almost completely by the smoke rising up from the dying city.

A small brown haired girl stands off to the side of one damaged street, bare foot and in nothing but her sleep clothes, clutching a stuffed toy tightly to her chest as people sprint past her and toward underground barracks a few miles outside of their city's capital. Her big sea green eyes flit over their terrified faces as they rush past her, looking for two specific people who would be able to make everything alright. Fear had a tight, vise like grip around her heart as minutes tick by longer and longer when the faces she was looking for didn't appear. A burning sensation pricked at her eyes and her vision swam with held back tears as she tries to force the panic away.

 _Where are they? Did they… Did the monsters get them? No… No… No monsters could harm them. Not them._

Suddenly an inhuman screech pierces the air near her and the child lets out a startled gasp. In the alleyway behind her, she could pick out the vague shape of one of the creatures, among many, that had been terrorizing the city and her people. It had to have been close to eight feet tall had it been standing tall. Right now it is hunched over in a predator like stance, having discovered its next victim. She feels her body go very rigid with fear, instincts shrieking at her to run. Run very far and very fast. Her feet begin to move on their own, taking her slowly backward from the creature who starts to approach her, talons already reddish purple from its last kill. A hungry look could be seen in its eyes as it walks past a structure that was reduced to cinders, embers still glowing softly.

Her footsteps pick up pace, moving her faster away from it before she turns tail and runs as fast as her short legs could carry her. She could hear it make another howl before its feet hit the ground, thundering close behind her. She races through a small crowd of civilians who scatter when the being tears through them, knocking a few aside as she runs through another alley. A pavestone comes loose under her feet causing her to trip and fall, hitting the ground painfully as she scrapes her elbows and knees. She gets up quickly, knowing the thing was hot on her tail.

" _Moddie! Dinay!"_ she calls out, hoping someone could hear her as she continues to run from the thing. All she wanted to do was be wrapped up in a strong pair of arms and cry but she couldn't stop now. She didn't want to die. Her breath came in ragged breaths, echoing off the walls that rise up on either side of her. Well above the youngling, a battle rages high in the sky. Distant sounds of a battle could be heard as planet's military force tries to push back against the imposing force, knowing they would lose but did what they could to buy the rest of the populace time to get to safety.

A chain of explosion suddenly drowns out everything for a few brief seconds as three of their basic space ports are destroyed not too far from where the girl was running. The detonation causes a small earthquake and the ground bucks beneath her, causing her to fall again. She scrambles back up and reaches the end of the alley which spits her out on a deserted street. Her head whips left and right as she tries to figure out the correct way to go. She had to reach the barracks before it was too late. Where were the ones that could make everything right again in her world? She nearly broke down right then and there before her ears pick up the familiar footsteps of the creature that had been chasing her. She whips around to face it just as it came crawling out of the alley. Her heart beats hard against her chest bone as she faces the thing. Her body hurt from having run so far and so long and the cuts and gashes she had accumulated during the chase started taking a toll on her.

She felt fatigue wear down on her small frame. She wanted the thing gone. Wanted it to disappear from sight. She wanted it to die, to not bother her anymore. It seems to almost sense her anger and frustration that it still followed her and wouldn't stop until either one of them weren't standing any longer. It gave her a hideous grin as it slowly advances on her position before the girl thrusts out with one small fist. A flame shoots out from it and slams into the creature who lets out an enraged yell, her attack having done nothing more than irritate it. It shakes its large, done playing games with the child. Her face drops when she sees that the flame hardly damaged it and feels panic take over again. It growls at her and makes ready to leap at her. Not knowing what else to do, she punches out with her fist again and feels the heat of the fiery element leave her hand. Her eyes close shut tight and she could sense the thing's body over her.

A blistering heat flies past her, about a foot from her face before the cold shadow of the creature could no longer be felt. One eye opens then the other and she looks off to the left. Not too far from where she stood, there was a pile of ash and bone, a lone and heavily burned claw sticking up in hook like manner.

 _Did I do that…?_

Suddenly a pair of arms wraps around her shoulders and she's clutched tightly to another frame. The young girl's then engulfed in a lilac and sunshine filled scent mixed with soot. Strands of reddish orange hair fall into her face as a woman holds onto her. She instantly recognizes the scent.

Mother.

A male voice sounds off about twenty feet behind her and the woman stands up, amber eyes brimming with unshed tears. Her gaze is then drawn to her partner who sends a cluster of boulders into another group of creatures.

Father.

The monsters hadn't gotten to them.

The woman hoists the girl up into her arms and races over to the man. A relieved expression crosses his face and he places a hand on the side of youngling's face when an alarm rips through the air, blaring incredibly loud.

The barracks were closing. The planet had been overrun.

There was nothing they could do but take refuge deep inside their planet.

Their daughter clasps her hands over her ears to block out the noise as she's then handed over to her father and the family sprints off toward the nearest bunker. It was roughly a half mile from them and it seemed everyone else had the same idea. Crowds of people race as fast as they can to safety, some being knocked down by the monsters' creatures. Some get up and some… don't. Those who are already inside the large domes that were about halfway closed call out to those who were closing in on them, urging them to hurry, that they still had enough time, there was enough room. That they could make it.

The trio moves as quickly as they can, occasionally getting jostled around by everyone and everything near them. The man and woman exchange a brief conversation though their words are drowned out by another loud booming roar as one of the ginormous metallic… things suddenly moves in on five of the bunkers. A laser peels out from within it and guts three of them, heavily damaging the other two. The child could feel her parents pick up speed as they close in on the one in front of them when her mother is suddenly knocked to the ground by one of the creatures. It was smaller than the one that had chased their daughter but its talons were longer and very wicked looking, having already torn a gash into the woman's right shoulder. A furious look crossed the mother's face as she sends a wave of flame toward the being. It suddenly dodges the attack and comes up behind her. She drops to the ground to avoid the strike and glances over to see the father just about send an earthen spike through it when they both pick up the sound of metal grinding on metal as the large metallic creature turns their way.

A hellish beam of energy pours out of it and the deafening sound of high heated plasma ripping through the ground comes up on them. The mother looks back at the two and all they could hear her scream is, "MOVE!" before the smaller creature latches onto her back and causes them to be pulled farther away from her daughter and husband. The father jerks back away from the energy blast, missing him by ten feet as it tears through the area where his wife and the creature had been.

All that is left is a smoldering ruin.

"Anula!" he screams out before feeling his body double over from the mental and emotional payload that rips through the bond he and his wife had created. His vision swims and he forces himself to stand and move through the pain he begins to sprint toward the bunker. It had already begun to close before he dives inside, crashing into the lift's metal floor. A dull thud and locks cycling through can be heard overhead as the bunker's dome seals the crowd in. The elevator drops fast, moving several feet per second. Cries of anguish, sorrow and pain sound off as people begin to try and take note of others around them, using the red lights that were flickering on.

The man had curled protectively around his daughter before finally, carefully, moving into a kneeling stance, setting the girl in front of him.

"Aluna? _Meithrey,_ look at me. Are you alright?" His eyebrows furrow in concern as his dark brown eyes examine his daughter as his hands rest on her little shoulders. Her nightgown is covered in soot and ash. Her legs are covered in a bit of blood and her face is stained with tears. Aluna's eyes flit up to her father's face before she tries peering around him at the other people standing around them.

" _Dinay_?" she asks in small voice. "Where's _Moddie_?"

His expression slips and his shoulders drop. He suddenly seemed much older than what he physically looked like.

" _Moddie_ is… She's… She didn't…" His voice cracks and he winces at the sound. His eyes close and tears begin to fall down his face, body shaking from grief and pain. His daughter studies for a moment as it registers in her mind.

"Is she…?" And her father looks back up at her, answer already in his gaze. Tears already begin to slip down her face before her father pulls her close, hugging her tightly against his chest as they begin to mourn their loss together.


End file.
